With more than one million page views and more than 4,000 items, this blog provides news and commentary on public policy, business and economic issues related to the $3 billion California stem cell agency, officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM). David Jensen, a retired California newsman, has published this blog since January 2005. His email address is djensen@californiastemcellreport.com.

The effort
is the second installment in the CIRM 2.0 program begun earlier this year by
the agency’s president Randy Mills. He assumed his post in May 2014 at the
California Institute of Regenerative Medicine or CIRM, as the $3 billion agency is
formally known.

Mills has
described his changes as radical. He says they are aimed at improving the
quality of applications and speeding development of therapies. He also has called for
deeper involvement by the agency in the direction and work of researchers.

Mills, who
has made his entire career in the biotech business, says he wants to provide a relatively
smooth track, a “continuous, predictable pathway” from basic research to clinical
applications. He uses a railroad analogy to illustrate the desired progression of
research(see graphic above).

The $243 million up for approval this week is about 30 percent of the agency's remaining $800 million. However, the money will be spent over the next several years -- not just this year. Under Mills' spending projections, the agency will not run out of cash until 2020.

The largest
program coming before CIRM directors this week is $100 million during 2015-16 for
more advanced research related to clinical development. Directors earlier approved
$50 million for the effort for the first six months of this year. However, they
have awarded only $25 million as of the end of June.

Another $53 million is set for a variety of mostly basic research, which Mills calls “discovery.” Requests for applications are scheduled to begin late this summer or fall. Some of the rounds will have application openings twice a year. Cash is scheduled to flow to researchers within about 10
months of application.

Mills is
also asking the board for substantial delegation of authority to him during the
reviews and is calling for an “optimized review process” because of a high
anticipated volume of applications in discovery.

Under the $40 million translation research round, Mills would also be delegated authority
in the grant review process to pluck out applications and advance them even if reviewers disagreed. Applications will be accepted in September and March. Cash will flow to researchers about nine months after applications are submitted.

Both the
discovery and translation rounds are open to both businesses and nonprofit
enterprises.

A revised training
program called “Bridges 2.0” for college level students is budgeted for $46
million over a five-year period. A training program for high school students, changed
and rebranded as “Spark,” will receive $4 million over five years.
Applications for that program are due Oct. 1. It is open to colleges, universities
and non-profit academic institutions.

Applications
for the Bridges program are also due Oct. 1. They will be limited to “California public universities or
colleges or private, nonprofit academic institutions, which did not receive a
CIRM-funded Major Facility or Shared Research Laboratory Award (and, hence, do
not have a major stem cell research program or a critical mass of stem cell
researchers).”

In addition to the Oakland location of the directors' meeting, the public can participate at teleconference locations in San Diego, South San Francisco, Stanford and two in La Jolla. Addresses can be found on the agenda, which includes directions for listening to the Internet audiocast of the meeting.

Email comments for the CIRM directors on items
on the agenda may be sent to mbonneville@cirm.ca.gov.

About Me

The California Stem Cell Report is the only nongovernmental website devoted solely to the $3 billion California stem cell agency. The report is published by David Jensen, who worked for 22 years for The Sacramento Bee in a variety of editing positions, including executive business editor and special projects editor. He was the primary editor on the 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning series, "The Monkey Wars" by Deborah Blum, which dealt with opposition to research on primates. Jensen served as a press aide in the 1974 campaign and first administration of Gov. Jerry Brown. (Time served: two years and one week.) He writes from his sailboat on the west coast of Mexico with occasional visits to land. Jensen began writing about the stem cell agency in 2005, noting that it is an unprecedented effort that uniquely combines big science, big business, big academia, big politics, religion, ethics and morality as well as life and death. The California Stem Cell Report has been identified as one of the best stem cell sites on the Internet. Its readership includes the media (both mainstream and science), a wide range of academic/research institutions globally, the NIH and California policy makers.